Former longshot Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb defended former President Andrew Jackson, whose face on the $20 bill is slated to be replaced by that of Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman, claiming that Jackson's "legendary tenure" had been reduced by the media to being "known primarily for" killing thousands of native Americans and being a slave-owner.

In a scathing editorial published Sunday night in The Washington Post, Webb, a former U.S. senator from Virginia, said that the media's "dismissive characterization of one of our great presidents" was the result of "how far political correctness has invaded our educational system and skewed our national consciousness."

Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb was not happy to hear that former President Andrew Jackson’s face would be replaced on the $20 bill. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Last week the Treasury department announced that Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave and abolitionist hero would bump Jackson off the face of the new $20 note, prompting celebrations of a long-anticipated decision to put a woman on U.S. currency.

But the decision also sparked intense criticism of Jackson and questions over why someone who had owned hundreds of slaves, attempted to dismantle the nation's banking system and who had overseen the killing of thousands of Native Americans, under the Indian Removal Act, had been honored in the first place.

The life of Civil Rights activist Harriet Tubman

Webb, in his article, said Jackson's reputation had been unfairly tarnished in the process.

"Far too many of our most important discussions are being debated emotionally, without full regard for historical facts. The myth of universal white privilege and universal disadvantage among racial minorities has become a mantra, even though white and minority cultures alike vary greatly in their ethnic and geographic origins, in their experiences in the United States and in their educational and financial well-being," Webb wrote. "Into this uninformed debate come the libels of 'Old Hickory.'"

Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman is slated to be the new face of the $20.

"Self-made and aggressive, he found wealth in the wilds of Tennessee and, like other plantation owners such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, owned slaves," Webb, who abandoned his own presidential bid last October, continued. "He was a transformational president, hated by the reigning English American elites as he brought populist, frontier-style democracy to our political system."

"On the battlefield he was unbeatable, not only in the Indian Wars, which were brutally fought with heavy casualties on both sides, but also in his classic defense of New Orleans during the War of 1812," he added. "Jackson became the very face of the New America, focusing on intense patriotism and the dignity of the common man."